Kirana Pro to expand pan-India, launch service in Dubai

Kirana Pro, a quick commerce grocery platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), plans to expand pan-India besides launching its services in Dubai in two months, its co-founder and CEO Deepak Ravindran said. 

Kirana Pro, in which badminton star PV Sindhu has invested and is a brand ambassador, currently operates in Kerala, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad. 

“We have access to 30,000 kirana stores and an activation base of 3-4 million stores. We have 25,000 users and we operate on the ONDC (open network for digital commerce) platform,” Ravindran told businessline in an online interaction.

Leveraging ONDC

Incorporated four months ago, Kirana Pro offers up to 50 per cent discount on groceries through partnerships with stores. “We plan to serve under-served markets leveraging ONDC for logistics and avoid the need for physical stores. We are an asset light company,” he said. 

Kirana Pro co-founder Dipankar Sarkar

“We are exploring partnerships with celebrities and sports personalities to enhance our brand visibility and marketing. We are also looking for franchise partners,” the company’s co-founder and CEO said.

Kirana Pro, which will have more brand ambassadors particularly popular cricket players who figure in the current IPL series, will be known as “K Pro” in Dubai and other international markets. 

The start-up plans to enter Chennai soon but it will mainly focus on Tier-II and -III cities, said Ravindran.

No inventories

Based in Thrissur, Kerala, Kirana Pro serves the city, besides other Kerala cities such as Kochi and Kannur. 

“We try and deliver goods to customers within 10 minutes. We don’t hold any inventory. Our average order value is about ₹1,000,” he said. Sales are to the tune of ₹5 lakh a day.  

The company, a 11-member team based in Thrissur and Bengaluru, can expand easily to other parts of the country given the fact that it is on ONDC platform. “Our expansion depends on user requests through our app,” he said.

Stating that there are no membership fees for customers, he said users pay only for the cost of the goods. For kirana stores, too, the platform is free.  

Kirana Pro’s other co-founder Dipankar Sarkar said the company will continue to expand with ONDC support in areas where quick service commerce does not exist.